Status of Cases Cognizable by The Lupon Ng Tagapamayapa in Barangay Calmay Laoac, Pangasinan

Abstract

Barangay is considered as the smallest unit of the government in the Philippines. It performs the initial operations such as the formation and employment of programs, activities, policies, and others that involved the community (De Torres, 2019).
As a brief history of barangay, It was known as balangai during the precolonial period and is currently the lowest political administrative unit of the Philippine Government. Started as a form of village governance by local chieftains known as datus or rajahs, barangay governance struggled through the colonial Spanish period (when barangays were renamed barrios) and the American era (when they were known as rural councils). In the post-colonial period, it struggled with the highly centralized Philippine state, where citizen engagement was quite low or almost nonexistent. (Maralli, 2018)
During the martial law years 1972-1986, President Marcos mobilized the barangay councils to provide support for his national agenda of social and political reforms through the Bagong Lipunan, or the New Society. But in 1992 the enactment of the Local Government Code and the Urban Development and Housing Act made the barangay a strong foundational base for the deepening of democratization and decentralization of local governance in the twenty-first century. (Porio,2019)
The Philippine Congress passed Republic Act No. 9285, or the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004, declaring the state's policy to actively support party autonomy in resolving disputes or the parties' freedom to create their agreements to resolve their conflicts. To this aim, the state will encourage and aggressively promote the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a critical tool for achieving swift and fair justice and declogging court dockets. To accomplish this, the state must make available the means for ADR to be used as an effective instrument and alternative instrument and alternative procedure for resolving relevant instances. (Strazisar,2018)